Universities and colleges across the United States are finding that an ever-increasing number of students on their campuses are dealing with a variety of mental health issues, ranging from anxiety and depression to thoughts of suicide.

Recent studies and surveys indicate that nearly 45 percent of college students nationally report symptoms of depression, while almost 40 percent report experiencing anxiety.

Perhaps most concerning – up to 15 percent of college students have contemplated suicide. U.S. campuses report that approximately 1,100 students take their own lives each year, making suicide the second-leading cause of death among that demographic.

Western Carolina University is not immune from this growing mental health crisis. Thanks to a significant financial contribution from a WCU alumna, the university’s Counseling and Psychology Services Center now will be able to increase its evaluation and treatment of students struggling with depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.

Rebecca Schlosser, a 1973 graduate of WCU and former member of the university’s Board of Trustees, recently made a transformative gift to WCU that will enable the center to greatly enhance its services by expanding access, increasing outreach and strengthening its ability to support student well-being.

“For me personally, mental health awareness came to the forefront when my son began struggling with mental health issues in 2007 and 2008 during his junior and senior year in college,” said Schlosser, a resident of Greensboro.

That son, David Edmond Wesley Schlosser, died unexpectedly at the age of 25, just nine days after graduating from Elon University.

“Students need to feel comfortable receiving mental health services,” Schlosser said. “College campuses should prioritize destigmatizing mental health, offering accessible resources and creating a supportive environment. Many times, mental health issues begin in early adulthood, which falls right during the college years. Dealing with the demands of college can add increased anxiety.”

She and her late husband, Greensboro attorney and former Guilford County District Attorney Michael A. Schlosser, made gifts in 2016 to create the David E. W. Schlosser Endowed Scholarship Fund in their son’s memory to provide support for students with demonstrated financial need in WCU’s Brinson Honors College.

They also agreed that they wanted to do something more to provide much-needed resources to WCU to help the university in its efforts to provide services to students struggling with mental health issues, in part to help parents and other family members avoid the heartache that they endured with the loss of their son.

The Schlossers later updated their financial plans to include a commitment to create an endowment to support the work of WCU’s Counseling and Psychological Services Center, a commitment that was fulfilled earlier this year.

In recognition of the gift establishing a program endowment for the center often referred to as CAPS, the university’s Board of Trustees has approved the facility’s renaming to the Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services.

The Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services has a mission of empowering students to engage in and be successful in a range of academic, social and cultural endeavors through fostering psychological wellness. The center provides individual and group counseling to students on a short-term basis at no cost as well as emergency services when a student is experiencing a mental health crisis. It is located in Suite 225 in the Bird Building and reaches beyond its physical office by offering tele-mental health services and appointments at WCU’s Biltmore Park off-campus instructional site.

Over the past few years, the center has consistently offered more than 7,000 appointments to an average of approximately 1,100 individual students annually, said Kim Gorman, associate vice chancellor for health and wellness.

Despite those numbers, the center has not experienced a significant increase in student usage of its services, which is most likely related to a limit in the ability to serve a larger number of students given current staffing restraints, said Caroline Engler, CAPS director. But the center has seen significant increases over the last three years in the severity and complexity of mental health issues presented by student clients, Engler said.

“Our data is consistent with Center for Collegiate Mental Health data in that we continue to see a rise in reported experiences of history of trauma. Additionally, according to CCMH data, WCU students report more frequent and intense experiences with depression, anxiety, eating concerns and suicidal ideation as compared to the national average,” she said.

“Although our students report higher levels of acuity than the national average, our data also indicates that, with treatment, they report more significant declines in experiences of suicidal ideation and overall distress than the CCMH national averages,” Engler said.

An official naming ceremony for the Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 4. Fittingly, September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

“Renaming CAPS is more than just changing the name,” Rebecca Schlosser said. “I speak also on behalf of my late husband. It was our goal to provide this endowed funding to support WCU’s Counseling and Psychological Services and to help to destigmatize the challenges surrounding mental health. Our family wishes to help shine a bright light of hope along this very difficult pathway,” Rebecca Schlosser said.

“To the students at WCU, if you feel you need mental health support, I encourage you to seek services at the Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services,” she said. “You are not alone.”

The Schlosser contribution will enable the center to greatly increase the level of counseling and other psychological services it offers and improve and expand its training program so that additional providers will be able to more adequately address the growing need for mental health services at WCU.

Numerous factors are playing a role in the rise of mental health issues in the United States in recent years, said Engler.

“There is a trend that individuals who seek treatment at university counseling centers have been engaged in treatment prior to coming to college. This tells us that their distress levels are affecting individuals in middle and high schools,” she said.

The global COVID-19 pandemic is frequently cited as one primary source of the increase in mental health issues among young people, causing uncertainty and fear of the unknown, disrupting social connections and interrupting academic schedules, Engler said.

“However, the pandemic simply intersected with other ongoing social factors including the divisiveness we are seeing in our communities – and in our families. This is having an impact on our sense of community and belongingness, both factors that are essential for good mental health,” she said. “Furthermore, research shows the impact of social media has been problematic and contributing to mental health symptoms. Finally, there is much evidence of the impact of sleep disruption, often caused by excessive cell phone use and gaming, on mental health symptoms for teens.”

The additional services made possible by the Schlosser gift will help a larger number of students receive the mental health services they need to be able to stay enrolled in school and on track to graduate, said Gorman.

A 2023 research project conducted by Gorman and WCU colleague Kathleen Brennan, professor of sociology, found that students who seek help for their mental health issues are more likely to persist in their educational journey.

“We know that our services are helpful for retention of students as demonstrated by our recent study. The results indicate a higher number of counseling sessions was helpful in retention efforts for all students at the university,” Gorman said. “So, this gift is an investment in our students.”

Gorman and Brennan published the results of their study in a paper titled “More Sessions Make a Difference: University Counseling Centers and Student Retention” in the June 2023 edition of the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice.

“We just feel immense gratitude,” Gorman said. “This gift is an incredible acknowledgement of the importance of mental health services at WCU.”

Rebecca Schlosser earned her bachelor’s degree in education. While a student at WCU, she was a member of Delta Zeta sorority, spent four years as a majorette with the marching band, and was a member of both Kappa Delta Pi and Alpha Phi Sigma honor societies. The WCU chapter of Phi Delta Kappa named her Most Outstanding Female Student at WCU her senior year.

After completing her undergraduate studies, she taught at a private all-girls school in New York before returning to school at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, earning her master’s degree in education there in 1983. During her time at UNCG, she met her future husband and helped him start his law firm.

Mike Schlosser was a graduate of Virginia Military Institute and Wake Forest University School of Law. He died in February 2024, 10 years after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and amyloidosis as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Paratrooper Corps serving a tour in South Vietnam.

Rebecca Schlosser served on the WCU Board of Trustees from 2017 until 2023 and formerly served on the university’s Foundation Board of Directors and Board of Visitors. A member of the Madison Legacy and Cullowhee giving societies, she served on the steering committee for WCU’s previous “Lead the Way” comprehensive fundraising campaign. She is an involved member of the Triad alumni chapter and frequently hosts Triad-area events at her Greensboro home. The Schlossers have been annual donors to WCU since 1990.

The naming of the Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services comes as WCU is in the midst of the public phase of its “Fill the Western Sky” comprehensive fundraising campaign, an effort to raise a minimum of $100 million in philanthropic support for the university’s academic, student engagement and athletics programs.

For more information about the “Fill the Western Sky” campaign or to make a contribution, visit WesternSky.wcu.edu, call 828-227-7124 or email advancement@wcu.edu. 

Gifts of $100,000 from communication alumnus create 2 annual scholarship funds

By Bill Studenc

A 1984 graduate of Western Carolina University’s communication program who is now senior vice president of operations for Charter Communications-Spectrum Reach has made $100,000 in gifts and pledges to create two new annual scholarships in support of future students in the program.

Alumnus Christopher Faw and his wife, Cathy Faw, announced the establishment of the Professor Richard Gainey Annual Scholarship and the Faw Annual Scholarship during a Friday, Oct. 27, celebration of the 75th anniversary of WCU’s radio station, WWCU-FM 95.3.

As a WCU student, Faw was named general manager for WWCU-FM and also served as on-air talent for the student-run radio station.

Through gifts and pledges, both of the new scholarship funds are being established at $50,000 apiece, and both will provide $10,000 in financial assistance per academic year to a student beginning in the fall semester of 2024. Scholarships will go to students pursuing degrees within WCU’s Department of Communication, with preference going to first-year students with demonstrated financial need.

Scott Eldredge, associate professor and head of the Department of Communication, characterized the donation creating the new scholarships as “an amazing gift” that will provide both merit-based and needs-based awards to students in the program and alleviate some of their financial stress.

“We work hard to help our students succeed, and that means more than just making sure they are doing well in class. We look for ways to help however we can. Our students often are first-generation students and often work to pay for school on their own. Many of our students work one or even two jobs both on and off campus,” Eldredge said.

“This gift will allow them to be more engaged in the department and have the time and energy to take advantage of our student organizations, connect with our professional networking opportunities, and build and practice their skills in our labs and studio spaces.”

During remarks delivered at the WWCU-FM celebration event, Faw initially joked that the motivation for his donation was an effort to broker a settlement for unexpected fines after his discovery of a long-overdue book at WCU’s Hunter Library, before he shifted gears to share the real reason for his gift.

“I am so buoyed by the experience that I had here at Western Carolina. Every time I see those WCU letters around my town in Charlotte, it makes my heart skip a beat. This is a truly, truly special place. Without the start that I got here, without the practical experience, without the chance to fail and succeed, I wouldn’t have had the life that I’ve had. It is just such a gift to have been here at Western that to even pay back a little of it is a privilege,” Faw said.

“To students who are here now, it might not mean that much to them now, but 20, 30 or 50 years out, they’re going to look back and say, ‘Oh, that’s what did it. That’s what made the difference. It was that professor who urged me on. It was that chance to be on the radio or build that podcast or be part of that social experience.’ It’s a gift for us to be able to give back more than you can know, and we hope to do more in the future.”

The Professor Richard Gainey Annual Scholarship is in honor of one of Faw’s favorite instructors at WCU. Richard Gainey arrived in Cullowhee in 1981 following a career in radio, television and cable TV programming. After a year teaching speech communication at the University of South Carolina, Gainey began teaching broadcasting courses at WCU fulltime.

Over a seven-year period in Cullowhee, Gainey taught classes, advised students, managed WWCU-FM, founded the WCU Chapter of the National Broadcasting Society and took students on field trips to many broadcast stations and to national industry conventions. He left WCU in 1988 for a new role as director of the broadcast program at Ohio Northern University.

The Faw Annual Scholarship is intended to recognize the help and encouragement that Faw received from faculty during his college years, which he credits for putting him on the road to a successful career.

Faw attended WCU from 1980 through 1984, when he received his bachelor’s degree in radio, television and motion pictures. Over a career of more than 30 years, Faw worked in the field utilizing all facets of communications skills obtained at WCU, he said. While in college, finances were an issue for him, but he managed to leave WCU with only a small amount of student loan debt, he said.

Prior to joining Charter Communications-Spectrum Reach, which is the advertising sales division of the telecommunications industry giant, Faw was senior vice president of operations for Time Warner Cable’s media sales division, producer of the “Charlotte Hornets Weekly Show,” a freelance voice-over talent and news assignment editor and show producer at WCNC-TV.

During his career, he traveled extensively, owned and piloted his own aircraft, earned media-related patents, was named to the CableFax Hall of Fame and received a technical Emmy Award for advertising innovation.

He and wife Cathy reside just outside of Charlotte in the Cabarrus County town of Harrisburg. Their daughter, Kelby Smith, is a 2013 graduate of WCU’s communication program and currently works for Cox Media Group in Charlotte. She is married to Dale Smith, who also attended WCU, earned a Purple Heart while serving in Afghanistan and is currently a police officer with the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Police Department.

Several dozen communication program faculty, students and alumni and other WCU leaders were on hand for the announcement, which coincided with a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of WWCU-FM.

As part of the afternoon event, longtime communication faculty member Don Connelly was recognized for his contributions to the radio station, including the recent construction of a new tower that led to a change to the current frequency of 95.3 FM from 90.5 FM. The frequency change has provided WWCU with the potential to reach an audience of more than 150,000 Western North Carolina residents.

Connelly has been a WCU faculty member for 24 years. During Connelly’s tenure, he has been a professor, author, former department head and faculty adviser to the student-run WWCU-FM, Eldredge said.

“It has been his hard work and dedication to our students that has gotten us to this new tower site and new radio frequency that allows us to have the largest coverage area of any radio station in Western North Carolina,” he said.

Earlier in the day, 36 communication program alumni from across the department’s disciplines – public relations, journalism, broadcasting and marketing communications – from various industries joined current students for a series of nine panel discussions. Panel topics were government agencies; the broadcasting industry; communication in the hospitality industry; journalism; political communication; radio; public relations, advertising and marketing communications clients and agencies; education; and the music industry.

The events, made possible by a separate gift from Faw, were part of the communication program’s Homecoming 2023 activities.

The Faw gifts come as WCU is in the early stages of the “Fill the Western Sky” comprehensive fundraising campaign, an effort to raise $75 million for the university’s academic, student engagement and athletics programs. For more information or to make a contribution to the campaign, visit WesternSky.wcu.edu, call 828-227-7124 or email advancement@wcu.edu.